A Baker's Pie Crust

Name: A Baker's Pie Crust
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 300 grams Flour; 100 grams Cream cheese; 250 grams Butter (unsalted); 2 pinch Salt; 50 ml Cold water

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

The pie crust recipe in a cookbook I had was too sticky and hard to work, so I adapted it using a crispy biscuit recipe that I had. I used 300 g of medium-strength or all-purpose flour this time. I tried various ratios of flours, but this recipe worked well with all cake flour or 100 g of bread flour + 200 g of cake flour too. I love how this pie stays crispy even the next day. There's no need to fold the crust, plus you only need one bowl.

The cream cheese and butter blend better if you work them with your hands, but they do melt with your body temperature. If you use a fork, they blend better with the flour and your hands don't get messy. If you knead it or the cream cheese and butter melt while you're making the crust, the layers won't form properly, so it's best to chill the cream cheese and butter very well beforehand, and to make a crumbly crust quickly. Chilled ingredients will result in the nicest crust when baked. This recipe yields around 8 to 10 mini-pies about the size of your palm, or one double pie crust. If you only need the bottom crust for a pie, use half the listed amounts. Recipe by Koharumama

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

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Ingredients

8 servings

300 gramsFlour
100 gramsCream cheese
250 gramsButter (unsalted)
2 pinchSalt
50 mlCold water

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Steps

1

Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl. Add the chilled cream cheese and butter, and break them up with a fork while coating them with the flour.
2

When the lumps have become small, break up the rest of the lumps with the back of the fork. When it looks crumbly all over as shown in the photo, it's ready.
3

Make a well in the middle and pour in the chilled water. Gather the flour mixture into the middle, and press down with your palms (don't knead it) to form into one mass.
4

The dough should be crumbly, not smooth. Wrap in plastic film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours or more. The pie crust dough is done.
5

Roll out the filling and wrap any filling you like in it. Brush with egg wash and bake until golden brown. Bake for 10 minutes at 200°C, then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 15 to 18 minutes.
6

Notes: Roll the rested dough out a little, and fold into thirds. Roll out and fold again, for a total of 3 times. You can omit this step, but this will result in a pie crust with very nice layers. Even a tough pie crust will become tender and easy to handle.
7

I combined the cream cheese left over from making the crust with homemade jam to make the filling.
8

I tried making a mille feuille pie with honey lemon and custard.
9

You can make a variety of pies with this recipe. I like arranging them in baskets to present them as gifts.